The Death of a Hero
by n1n93
Summary: The peace is gone now. The storms winds will tear them apart if they aren't careful. Rated M for later chapters. Major Character death for later chapters as well.
1. The Storm

**~*Hello! First Overwatch fic and I'm very much addicted to the game right now. I have to update other stories but this has been in my mind for a little while now " 3 *~**

Doctor Angela Ziegler took a slow steady breath. What was the saying? The calm before the storm? Watching the scenery from her seat she allowed herself the brief moment of peace, listing to the others chatter idly in the main compartment of the ship. Lena's laughter was enough to put a smile on her face.

The brit loved Kings Row. She was telling Winston and Fareeha all about the sprawling London town. Turning in her seat to look at her team she noted Genji staring out of the drop hatch, his visor a soft green. He was likely deep in thought, blocking the others out as he prepared for the battle to come.

Her eyes were slowly drawn to the last member of the team, sitting at one of the tables looking over his trusty rifle. Soldier 76. Jack. All the things she wanted to say to him rushed to the forefront of her mind but she wouldn't want to distract him from the mission. It wasn't like she hadn't already tried that route either. He wouldn't budge. He would just keep risking it all until there was nothing left for her to bring back.

"Mercy! Come to finally join us! I was jus' tellin' them all about this pub we should pop into afore we leave." Lena calls out to her, waving enthusiastically. Angela smiles, making her way over to the three.

"Sounds wonderful to me. We could all use a little break." Her smile fades as the ships AI chirps that they have reached their destination. She sighs, placing a hand on Lena's shoulder. "Try to be careful everyone." She says as the door hisses open.

The peace is gone now.

The storms winds will tear them apart if they aren't careful.

The raid began at midnight. Six Overwatch agents pouring into a warehouse known to house Talon arms as well as other illegal items. They were met with four mercenary teams not that it mattered to the well trained agents. Making quick work of the mercs Soldier 76 and Winston began to phone the warehouse in to the local authorities when a shot rang out, echoing through the warehouse.

Jack fell almost in slow motion, blood blooming from the new hole in his chest. Angela reacted quickly, the healing stream from her Caduceus staff already locked on to him as he fell. She rushed forward, barely able to slow his downward momentum.

"Sniper!" Lena bellowed, disappearing out of thin air. Winston was quick to help Angela move the fallen soldier behind cover, her staff working quickly to heal his wound.

He grunts, his hand tightening around the grip of his rifle. "'ppreciate it Ang.."

She manages a smile for him, glancing around quickly as another shot echoed through the warehouse followed quickly by Tracer's giggling. She was distracting the sniper. "Give yourself a moment to rest before moving again. I need to go help her." She stresses the need for rest, looking at the red of his visor in an attempt to make eye contact.

With that said and done she darted forth, finding Lena on the other side of the large warehouse. "Hey doc!" She grins, breaking cover to fire her dual pulse pistols at the snipers location. "Hows 76?"

"He will live." Angela says with a small smile, looking the girl over from behind their temporary cover. She noticed him too late.. The smell of death should have alerted her..

"But will you?" A deep voice, almost like gravel, growled. Tracer reacted quicker than Mercy, blinking away from the new threat as the Reapers hand shot out, trapping Angela to the storage crate behind her by her throat. She gasped out, dropping her staff as her hands clawed at his in a feeble attempt to get free. The sound of the staff clattering across the pavement was painfully loud to her ears.

Her fingers clutched at his, eyes pleading for release. "Don't worry Herr Doktor... It isn't your time just yet." She could almost hear the smile on his face as he slammed her back against the crate.. After that everything was a blur..

Reaper held her over his shoulder. Her wings breaking under his hands to lay uselessly on the ground. Her staff tucked away in his long black cloak. Tracer..

Lena had tried her damnedest to stop Reaper in his escape. Calling on her teammates to help only to be shot down mid blink. The girl tumbled head over foot into a pile of empty boxes, scatter shot buried in her left shoulder and her chronal accelerator blinking.

Angela tried reaching out to the girl, black spots dancing along her vision as she looked up. Her team.. Her family.. They were trying so hard to get to her.

That was the last thing she remembered..

 **~* Thank you for reading!*~**


	2. Strike Commander

**~*Here is another, somewhat short, chapter!*~**

Jack slammed his fist into the table in front of him, teeth bared underneath his ever present mask. He was seething. How could they have possibly lost Angela. The five of them should have easily taken Reaper out- He swipes the desk clean, sending office supplies and an old picture frame flying.

Gabriel Reyes.

The man really wasn't human. His old brother in arms was nothing more than stone cold mercenary now and he couldn't help but feel more than just a little responsible. After all it was his poor leadership that drove Reyes to where he was. Maybe if he'd paid just a little more attention to Blackwatch things would have turned out differently.

Angela would argue.. _Humans have free will Jack. What they do with it is up to them._ She always had a knack for telling him what he needed to hear. Always trying to lessen his guilt. He figured it was just another way she was trying to fix him.

A knock at the door shook him from his reprieve, red visor meeting green. "Genji." He says shortly, turning to address the cyborg.

"Tracer is stabilized." Short and to the point. Genji turned to leave, noting the sign on the office door as he went.

 _ **Strike Commander**_

 _ **Jack Morrison**_

Jack sighed, crouching to clean up the shattered picture frame. The picture was of a young Overwatch. Back before Reyes' betrayal. Back when Jack didn't question what it really meant to be a hero. Back when Overwatch had a greater purpose than thwarting mercenary's in back alley warehouses in the hopes that their efforts would have some sort of impact.

He sat the frame on the desk, taking one last look at Angela's face. He'd get her back.

 **~* Thank you for reading*~**


	3. One Long Night

**~*I'm actually really liking how this story is turning out! Thank you for reading this far!*~**

Lena didn't know how long she had been staring at the ceiling, her thoughts muddy as the pain medication Winston had hastily given her numbed the pain in her shoulder. Her left hand hurt to move, her shoulder aching dully with even the slightest twitch of her fingers, her right griped weakly at her chronal accelerator. The thought of flickering out of existence again terrified her more than looking down the barrel of Reapers shotgun.

Winston sat nearby, tinkering with a holopad to keep his mind off things. Luck for all of them he had kept the medical bay stocked in case of emergencies. They had become far to reliant on Mercy and her staff and it wasn't as if a well know Overwatch agent could go to a civilian hospital with scatter shot embedded in their shoulder.

Well at least not without a lot of questions and possible a citation or two.

He huffed, looking back toward the bed Lena occupied. It wasn't natural for her to be so still and quiet... Her usually bright brown eyes were clouded and they seemed so far away. He wondered idly if he had measured the pain killers wrong but he shook the thought from his head. Athena had provided the correct metric for him.

"How is she?" Winston's head jerked toward the door in surprise, finding Soldier 76 standing in the doorway. Adjusting his glasses he turned back toward Lena, watching her right hand fumble around her chronal accelerator absently, her eyes finally sliding shut.

"Resting." He murmurs, turning back toward Jack as he stepped further into the medical bay. The old Strike Commander sighed, slowly removing his mask and visor. Winston tried not to stare at the long scar that marred Morrison's face, focusing on the holopad in his hands. "She'll be up and about before you know it."

"Not soon enough." Jack grumbles, his tired eyes falling on the brunette occupying the bed. "We'll have to move quickly if we want to find Dr. Zeigler. I don't need to remind you what happened to Amelie."

Winston felt himself bristle at the cold words their former commander spoke, "No. A reminder is hardly necessary. I see I'm still speaking to Soldier 76 rather than Jack Morrison." He replied just as coolly, adjusting his glasses once more.

Jack paused, expression unchanged by the others growing hostility. "Winston how soon will she be ready to fight or should I call around and hope that someone will answer. Because that worked so well for you didn't it?"

A snarl pulled at the gorillas lips, his canines flashing dangerously before he caught himself. Getting angry wouldn't help their situation, he finally rationalized, slowly calming himself down. "We will see. I have no idea how long she will be under the influence of the pain killers."

Jack crossed his arms, regarding Winston for a moment before nodding, "Keep me updated. Pharah and I will be working on pinpointing Mercy's location in the mean time." He says, his tone dismissive as he moves to don his mask and visor once more.

Winston watches as he walks toward the door, glowering at the 76 displayed boldly on the soldiers back. He looks up as Jack pauses in the doorway.

"I am sorry to ask this. If there were any other way.." He doesn't look at Winston, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

Winston nods, adjusting his glasses once more, "I understand..."

With that the soldier left the medical bay in silence. Winston sighed, his shoulders hunched as he turned back toward Lena. Hopefully she had slept through the exchange. He didn't need her to try running around in her current condition and past experience told him she would try. Persistently. Luck seemed to be on his side for once as Lena Oxton was sleeping soundly, her right hand having fallen from her chronal accelerator to rest on the bed at her side. Winston sighed again, leaning back in his chair.

It was going to be a long night.

 **~*Thank you for reading*~**


	4. Coffee Break

**~* Here we are! I saw some fanart of young Fareeha and an older Angela and I'm trash sorry*~**

Fareeha paced back and forth in front of a holo-display of the planet earth. Highlighted regions of the planet signified possible Talon facilities. Possible places they could be holding Mercy. Dr. Zeigler… Angela.

She had long since discarded her armor. It was hindering her ability to think and right now a tank top and cargo pants were all she was really willing to put effort into. What agents they had available were staking out the locations closest to them in hopes of spotting Reaper or any of the other high ranking Talon operatives. Fareeha was spearheading the command portion. A vital point of contact should anything happen.

Should they find the good doctor…

Or should trouble rear its ugly hooded head.

Fareeha took a sip of cold coffee that Winston had delivered earlier in the night. It hadn't seemed all that appealing at the time but now the bitter taste helped to keep her grounded. Black. Just the way she liked it. She'd have to remember to thank him after everything was said and done.

She tried to keep her thoughts from wondering. The last Overwatch agent they lost to Talon had come back long enough to murder her husband in his sleep. She couldn't bear to think of what they could possibly do to Angela-

The soft swish of the door sliding open alerted her to someone's presence. Looking up from the map she spotted Soldier 76 standing by a desk near the entrance with two cups in his hands. "I didn't come to give you a pep talk. Coffee. What have we got." His voice is as gruff as it always is as he hands her a cup. The thought of him giving a pep talk would have almost been funny to her any other day.

"No reports of activity as of yet." Fareeha kept her report short, finishing her cold coffee before setting the extra mug aside. "We will find her." He gave a grunt in response sitting his own cup aside.

The two fell into tense silence, eyes on the map for any activity. It didn't take long for Fareeha's mind to start wondering again. Her memories of Angela…The woman had been in her life since she was a young girl. A friend of her mothers. Despite the time she didn't seem to age a day, a fact that she and Mei often joked about. In Fareeha's experience age wasn't always easy to judge from outward appearance.

Fareeha could see the age in those blue eyes. The way she looked at her teammates before every battle. Silently hoping she wouldn't have to use her staff. That they would have a clean mission with no casualties. Overwatch agents didn't tend to have clean missions with no casualties and more often than not she was at the front doing her best to keep them alive.

How did they repay her for all of her service though?

She watched Reaper take her. She watched as he disappeared with Angela's limp body slug across his shoulder. What good was she if she couldn't save one of their own! What was her excuse? No fuel? She could have ran! Something! Anything was better than standing by and watching!

"Something on your mind? Take it elsewhere." Soldier 76 as personable as ever. She ground her teeth together, crossing her arms in defiance. "If you have something you want to say spit it out. I have no time to babysit."

"No time? Looks to me like you have all the time in the world." She scoffs, leaning back against a nearby desk. "You aren't out in the field and you aren't tending to the wounded. As far as I was aware you weren't commanding the field agents. So what are you doing 76?"

His demeanor was unchanged by her harsh words, much to her displeasure. His red visor was focused on the display in front of them. "I remember when you were barely to my knee. Already planning your 'superhero' outfit. Angela humored you and helped with the designs. She loved playing with you. It took her off the battle field. Gave her something normal. Something she could never have. She hated that you wanted to join in the bloodshed but she couldn't deny you your imagination."

She had expected a verbal thrashing… Not a trip down memory lane. Reaching up he removed his mask, taking a slow sip of coffee. Jack Morrison seemed much older than she could ever imagine. The look in his eyes as he watched the globe slowly rotate on the display. The soft orange glow of the display highlighted the scars marring his once handsome features. "I want you to know I didn't come here with a pep talk. I came here to sit in silence because I need to be doing something. Anything.

 **~* Re-upload and re-edited! Thank you for reading! *~**


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